Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-12-01
BY THE MORAY FIRTH.
Life and Customs of the Fisher
Folk on the Scottish Coast.


Life and Customs of the Fisher
Folk on the Scottish Coast.
Keen and strong and steady tonight,
in the gathering dusk, the wind is
coming up the firth out OF the east.
Barking clouds roll low along the sky,
and before the breeze, the waves In
their unnumbered hosts, Ike dark
hussars white crested, ride past to
break upon the beach sands yonder
inland at Fort George. The full, deep
gale brings with it out OF the shadowy
east the health OF hundred tumbling
seas, and sets the glad life dancing in
lip and eve and heart, while the music
of the rushing waves, like the drums
of far-off armies, stirs the soul with
the daring OF great purposes. Little
need, therefore, is there to pity the
fsherwomen and children far out at
the ebb-tide edge gathering bait among
the reefs. Clear are their eyes as the
sea-pools over which they bend,
and while sun and wind have made
their skins as brown as the wet sand
itself, many a drawing-room beauty
would give her diamonds for such Il
wealth of raven kair. Even at this
distance the happy voices OF the chill
dren, a pleasant murmur, speak OF
the free and simple hearts. Sport on,
happy children! Rejoice in your
brown brood, simple mothersl Not
yours are the pale cheek and the
wasted form, the lileless eye and the
languid step. Sometimes, it may be,
when the winds rise and the waves
come laundering upon the beach,
there are anxious hours for you be-
cause OF husband or father tossing out
there somewhere in the darkness;
sometimes, alas! a sore heart and
many tears when the little knot OF
silent men come up from the pale.
wet face that will speak to you no
more.
A race by themselves are these
fisherfolk, mixing little with the peo-
pie of the upper town, and keeping
very much by customs of their own.
Danish, very likely, or Morse, in
origin, their blood is all but as pure
yet as it was when their forefathers
landed on these shores. Only of late
years the steamship and the school
board have made some invasions upon
their traditional ideas. Seven miles
to the eastward along the coast, where
the white line CLEANS yonder on the
horizon, in places exposed by the
shifting sandhills, are still to be found
the remains OF villages-broken pot
terry, bronze pins, fish-hooks and shell
heaps-in which the ancestors Of these
folk LIVED very much the same life as
is lived here to-day.
Here, spread on the bent grass to
dry, and brown as the seaweed itself,
lie miles of fishing nets, with their
rows of worn cork floats, for the her
ring fishery for the season is over, the
west coast boats have gone home
through the canal and the gear is be-
ing laid by for the winter. In the end
of April it will be wanted again for the
Loeb Tyne fishing, but it will be the
end of June before the herring nets
are used on the east coast again. The
good woman coming up the shore be-
low with her creel and pail Of bait
mussels, sandworms and silver-gleam-
ing needle fish-is going now to bait
for the later white fishing the "long
lines" with their hundreds of hooks,
which her husband and his sons will
take out to set before daylight. To-
morrow morning, when the boat comes
home, she will have to fill her creel
with the haddocks and sell them along
the country side, or perhaps the fish
will be bought at auction by the cur
ers to be smoked with fragrant fir
cones in succulent, appetizing, "speld-
ings.''
The quayhead in the morning, when
the fish auction is going on, is a char
acteristic sight, and the only occasion
that anything like business wakens
in the quiet place. The boats have
come in with the running tide and lie
moored to great iron rings in the
landing place. Curious names, they
have, mostly double-the Espat and
Ann, or the Ann and Margaret
probably to represent the wives or
sweethearts of the two partners. In
the boats, themselves, lie together
heaps OF lines. ropes and sails, with
the fish cleaning here and there be-
tween them; while the quay is lit
tered with oars and spars, and
cables enough to make walking a fine
art. The fish have been lifted
out OF each boat by its crew, and when
the women have divided them into
glittering heaps-a heap for each
man and one for the boat-the skipper
sells the boats heap, and its price
settles that of the others. Here the
shrewd bargaining power of the fish
erfolk comes out, strained as it is, by
the narrow path they lead between
means and ends; while here the
women who have no mans hand to
bring them home the harvest OF the
deep contrive to find their bread by
buying the fish they will GfterHard
retail. The whole transaction is
primitive in the extreme, but one that
sufficiently serves its purpose.-[Lon-
don Graphic.